ERIC ED367334: Law Librarianship: A Content Analysis of Positions Advertised in the "AALL Newsletter."

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Field, Karen E.

Law Librarianship: A Content Analysis of Positions
Advertised in the "AALL Newsletter/ 1
Nov 93

37p.; M.L.S. Research Paper, Kent State
University.

Dissertations/Theses - Masters Theses (042) —
Tests/Evaluation Instruments (160)

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Academic Libraries; Employment Opportunities;
^Employment Patterns; ^Employment Qualifications;
Higher Education; *Law Libraries; Law Schools;
^Librarians; Library Associations; Newsletters
American Association of Law Libraries; *Job
Announcements

ABSTRACT

This paper is a content analysis of 202 job
advertisements located in the "American Association of Law Libraries
Newsletter" (AALL Newsletter) between April 1992 and September 1993
for the purpose of determining what employers are looking for and
informing individuals who wish to become law librarians about
expectations in the field of law librarianship. This analysis
uncovers the recent trends in law library employment qualifications.
A vast majority of law library employers expect the candidate to
possess at least an MLS (Master o* Library Science) degree; most
university pr law school employers will require, or strongly prefer,
both an MLS and a JD (Juris Doctor). This is important since over
half of the jobs advertised in the "AALL Newsletter" during the study
period are positions within university or law school libraries.
Experience in a law library is highly preferred, particularly if the
candidate possesses skills in computer-assisted legal research using
databases with both legal (West law and Lexis) and non-legal (Dialog)
applications. The coding sheet is included in the appendix. (Contains
38 references.) (Author/ JLB)

* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made *
Vf from the original document. *

U.S.OCMHT«ENTOF fOOCATlON *X> \<L

OMc« of EtfucJiKX* Rawarch and tmprovameni
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION

CENTER (ERIC)
O Thit document hat t*«n reproduced as
received trom the person or o*Qenuat«on
originating it
O Minor changes have been made to .mprove
reproduction Queiity ^

e Points of view or opinions stated tn thts docu
ment do not necessarily represent official
OERt pOSttKjnor policy

LAW LIBRARIANSHIP : A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF
POSITIONS ADVERTISED IN THE AALL NEWSLETTER

A Master's Research Paper submitted to the
Kent State University School of Library and Information
Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree Master of Library Science

by

Karen E. Field
November, 1993

"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS
MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

Karen Field

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
INFORMATION CENTER {ERIC):*

I

ABSTRACT

This paper is a content analysis of 202 job advertise-
ments located in the American Association of Law Libraries
Newsletter between April 1992 and September 1993 for the
purpose of determining what employers are looking for and
informing individuals who wish to become law librarians
about expectations in the field of law librarianship. Since
there are no definitive, minimum qualifications for becoming
a law librarian, a debate often arises within the legal
community as to how much education and experience is
adequate. This content analysis uncovers the recent trends
in law library employment qualifications.

A vast majority of law library employers expect the
candidate for law librarianship to possess at least an MLS.
Most university or law school employers will require, or
strongly prefer, both an MLS and a JD. This is important to
know since over half of the jobs advertised in the AALL
Newsletter during the study period are positions within
university or law school law libraries. Experience in a law
library is highly preferred, particularly if the candidate
possesses skills in computer assisted legal research using
databases with both legal (Westlaw and Lexis) and non-legal
(Dialog) applications .

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES iv

I. INTRODUCTION 1

Background 3

Purpose of the Study 8

II. LITERATURE REVIEW 9

III. METHODOLOGY 13

IV. RESULTS 15

V. CONCLUSION 25

APPENDIX A: CODING SHEET 27

REFERENCE LIST 28

iii

4

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1. Number and Types of Positions Advertised

Grouped by Job Title 15

2. Number and Types of Positions Advertised

Grouped by Broad Categories 16

3. Distribution of Job Ads by Type of

Employer 17

4. Regional Distribution of Advertisements

By Type of Employer 18

5. Degrees Required and Preferred

All Employer Types . 19

6. Advanced Degree Requirements or

Preferences by Type of Employer 21

7. Law Library Experience Requirements or

Preferences by Type of Employer 22

8. Computer Experience Required

By Type of Employer 23

9. Salary Offers or Descriptions

All Employer Types 24

iv

5

I. INTRODUCTION

The field of law librarianship is a prestigious one
that has evolved over decades- The turn of the century was
the changing point for unsophisticated law libraries of all
types. In 1906 the American Association of Law Libraries
(AALL) was formed to advance the study and discussion of law
librarianship as a separate division from the American
Library Association (Small 1908, 4), One of the major
problems facing AALL is the recruitment of new members to
the field of law librarianship, a task which is hampered by
the fact that many library schools do not actively encourage
students to seek a career in a law library. More
importantly, most library schools do not offer courses
designed to prepare library students for law librarianship
(Mersky 1991, 36) . Because of the unique problems
experienced by law librarians, a great deal of specialized
knowledge is required to perform any of the normal tasks of
a library environment, such as reference or cataloging,
because the field of law has publications and research tools
peculiar to the trade. Since the law librarian requires a
specialized body of knowledge, a debate exists within the

2

legal community as to the recommended qualifications that
are prerequisite to employment within a law library and
which institutions should be taking on the task of training
law librarians.

The law is a very complex profession and one that
requires both experience and classroom education for
adequate comprehension. Lawyers spend time in law school to
prepare for the complexity of interpreting and practicing
law* Law librarianship is equally as challenging in that
legal professionals expect the law librarian to be
knowledgeable and helpful when asked about legal research
and reference tools. The patron seeking help in the law
library is likely to be a law student, lawyer or judge,
representing a highly intelligent group of users requiring
advice and training specifically geared toward legal
research materials . Robert Oakley, Director of the Law
Library at Georgetown University Law Center gives a
comprehensive overview of the law librarian's
responsibilities as follows:

As law librarians, knowledge of legal sources forms the
core of our discipline, and a librarian contemplating
practice in a law library must have a good grasp of the
way basic legal sources are published and how to find
them. Those include, at a minimum, cases, statutes,
and regulations at the state and federal level . The
student should also understand the various legal
finding tools including digests, citators, and
periodical indexes. They should know what a loose-
leaf-service is, have some familiarity with the most

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important ones, and know generally how to use them.
Finally, they should be able to find legislative
documentation and be comfortable locating treaties and
other basic international documents (Oakley 1989, 157-
8)

Requirement of the Juris Doctorate (JD) as well as the
Masters in Library Science are often expected in the top
level of management within an academic law setting, as
documented by the professional standards set by the American
Association of Law Schools (AALS) and the American Bar
Association (ABA) since the early 1900s (Frantz 1951, 96) .
Yet elsewhere, such as in law firms or corporate legal
departments, an acceptable minimum standard differs
depending upon the hiring institution and the candidate for
employment. Some members of the legal community have voiced
their strong criticism of hiring as law librarians those
individuals who do not possess a JD, fearing a lapse in the
high standards and integrity of the profession and a lack of
respect for the scholarly research performed if non- lawyers
are permitted to practice law librarianship.

Background

A chronological history of the education and training
of law librarians brings the issue to light by showing the
diverse opinions that have been expressed on the subject
over time. Educational requirements for law librarians
became an issue in the early 1900s. John Boynton Kaiser, of
the University of Illinois Library, outlined the need for

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library schools to provide training of some sort for
prospective law librarians, whether in the form of
specialized curriculum or seminars and institutes (Kaiser
1912, 52) . The 1914 meeting of AALL provided a forum for two
other law librarians, E.M.H. Fleming and E .A. Feazel, to
express their differing views (Fleming and Feazel 1914, 45) .
Fleming stressed the need for library education rather than
legal training, while Feazel believed that the only way law
librarians could provide a high level of service to lawyers,
judges and law students was if the law librarian had legal
training or education. Frederick Hicks of Columbia
University spoke out advocating the need for law librarians
to have legal training, but not necessarily a law degree
(Hicks 1926, 1930) . Like Kaiser, Hicks felt that the
library schools should be the ones to provide the
specialized training in the form of a structured curriculum.

In 1929 AALL created a Committee on Education for Law
Librarianship to study the issues related to preparing and
educating law librarians for their profession. The first
study this committee undertook was an opinion poll of
practicing law librarians to ascertain the minimum
qualifications they expected of a new law librarian (Parma
1932, 173) . The AALL charged the committee to further
research of the problem, and, under the guidance of chairman
of the committee, Arthur Beardsley, a survey of professional
staff members of law school libraries was conducted to

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determine the amount of training and education they actually
possessed (Beardsley 1936, 198) . The results of the survey
indicated that very few respondents had formal legal or
library education (only 14% had law degrees and only 16% had
graduated from a library program) . The numbers were almost
evenly divided as to the lack of training, with 43% having
NO law training and 48% possessing NO library training
(Roalfe 1936, 202) .

This survey resulted in changes to the standards for
law school librarianship/ but had little impact on AALL 1 s
decision to certify all types of law librarians. Law school
libraries had fallen under ABA standards for law school
accreditation since 1921/ but the ABA had not seriously
restricted the librarians because the standards were vague
and imprecise about the type of education and amount of
experience required. In 1937, AALS added a standard to its
existing law school standards that required the presence of
a qualified librarian, but did not specify the minimum
qualifications. It wasn't until 1947 that ABA required both
training and experience in the law school librarian (Greene
1992, 13) .

The 1936 Beardsley survey did encourage some library
schools to take an active interest in teaching law
librarians. The first courses to be taught in law
librarianship were at Columbia University during summer
sessions (Williamson 1937, 262). In 1940 the University of

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Washington began a complete curriculum on law librarianship,
the object of which was to teach library skills to students
with law degrees (Gallagher 1962, 216) .

In 1957 and 1959 discussion again arose as to the
AALL's position on minimum qualifications for entry into the
profession. The problem remained that entry by

certification would have to be done by examination, not just
certification based upon completion of schooling or
training. The point was also made that certification would
have to be designed to take into account the many types of
law libraries so as to avoid examination questions that were
biased against those testing for non-academic librarianship.

A 1962 symposium on education of law librarians
discussed programs that were in existence at Columbia
University and the University of Washington, and outlined
programs that were in the planning stage. Various librarians
made recommendations for goals of setting minimum standards
in law library education. Most suggestions centered around
the definite need for both law and library training before
assuming a professional position within a law library. AALL
President Morris Cohen recommended advanced training in law,
preferably in the form of law school courses (Cohen 1962a,
228) . Marian Gallagher discussed her program at the
University of Washington in which "candidates for the master
of law librarianship degree must be lawyers" — with very few
exceptions (Gallagher 1962, 216).

11

I

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The closest AALL came to standardizing qualifications
for law librarianship came in 1967 with a voluntary
certification program that had four levels based upon
whether the librarian possessed:
-A law and library degree,

-A law degree and 4 years professional experience,
-A library degree and 6 years professional experience, or
-Long term, responsible, professional library experience
and outstanding contribution to the profession (AALL 1967,
434-435) . The AALL certification process was discontinued
in 1984 so that the AALL could maintain its tax status
(Greene 1992, 36) .

Finally, in 1988, AALL provided the ALA with
"Guidelines for Graduate Programs in Law Librarianship" just
as other special library groups had done at the request of
the ALA Accreditation Committee (Lester 1989, 516,520).

Law librarianship is still not taught as a segment of
most library school curriculum so an emphasis is generally
placed upon the "law" related qualifications that the
potential employee exhibits, such as the JD, an
undergraduate degree in paralegal study, or extensive law
library experience. At one time the qualifications for law
librarianship were as simple as those for other libraries of
the late 1800s: apprenticeship training with a minimal
amount of specialized education.

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Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to determine what
employers are actually looking for in their future law
librarians and to clarify the fundamental requirements of
law librarianship as defined by the market. Some of the
questions that will be answered include:

-What types of institutions are hiring lav;

librarians?

-Is the JD required in most instances?

-What job titles are most frequently advertised?

-How much experience is required of the law

librarian?

The content analysir method of research has been an
effective approach to ascertaining qualifications necessary
for other types of librarianship and an analysis of law
library job ads will provide valuable insights into the
field of law librarianship.

8

I

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

A review of the literature found in ERIC online (1966-
93) , LISA (1969-92), and Library Literature online (1984-93)
indicates that job advertisements are considered useful
sources of information for researchers investigating the
various aspects of qualifications and requirements of
librarians. An early analysis of job ads for Ohio library
positions was conducted by Mary Kim who performed a content
analysis on ads for professional positions within Ohio
libraries to determine the trend in job requirements (Kim
1981) . Others have studied job ads in search of trends in
the medical library field between 1961-1977 (Palmer 1978)
and in 1977-1978 (Stroyan 1987) using trade material such
as MLA News as a source of ads (Schmidt 1980) . These
researchers sought to analyze the aspects of classified ads
for health sciences librarians to determine what employers
were looking for at the time/ and tabulated their findings
into such categories as number and type of positions
advertised; region of position; and the amount and type of
experience for each particular position within the health
science library field.

There have been a number of studies done regarding
academic and public library job ads. In the early 1980s
research was conducted on the job opportunities for both

9

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public and academic librarians using classified ads located
in American Libraries / College & Research Libraries / and
Library Journal , to determine regional differences in
openings and whether there were more public than academic
positions listed (Wright 1988) . A team of researchers
studied the ads for academic librarians between 1983-1984 in
The Chronicle of Higher Education for the purpose of
locating any mention of the librarian's "rank" or "status 11
(i.e. tenure), and found that relatively few ads mention
this aspect of employment that occurs in academic settings
(Jackson and Clouse 1988) . Another pair of researchers
studied the ads for serials positions in academic libraries
between 1980 and 1988 (Mueller and Mering 1991), while the
team of Reser and Schuneman did a content analysis
comparing the qualification for the positions of public
services librarian and technical services librarian within
academic libraries (Reser and Schuneman 1992 ) . Reser and
Schuneman analyzed 1,133 job ads to determine the
differences in qualifications for the two positions, such as
level of computer skills, foreign language, work experience,
educational requirements and salary offered* They concluded
that the technical services librarian requires more computer
skills and the public services librarian requires higher
educational degrees . Recently a researcher submitted a
content analysis thesis of job ads for academic librarians
(Hill 1992) .

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Research has also been conducted on the various
requirements found within job ads, such as: the necessity
and frequency of cataloging skills (Palmer 1992) ; analysis
of the occurrences of computer skills in relation to
cataloging positions (Furuta 1990) ; the infrequency with
which salary ranges appear in library job ads (Fiscella and
Goodyear 1985) ; and the comparison of library school
curriculum to qualification requirements in job ads for the
purpose of suggesting changes in curriculum based upon
inconsistencies (Schlessinger and Schlessinger 1991) .

The subject of qualifications for business librarians
has been addressed utilizing a survey of academic business
librarians to determine what undergraduate majors,
undergraduate minors, second master's degrees, doctoral
deg rees an d number of years experience each respondent held
(Kendrick 1990) .

There has been no analysis done on job ads within the
law library field. One researcher (Greene 1992) performed
an historical analysis of the development of requirements
for law school librarians by collecting historical data from
sources in which organizations such as the American Bar
Association and the American Association of Law Schools set
guidelines for the hiring of head librarians within academic
law library settings . There are other academic law library
positions which are not uniformly guided by requirements of
the ABA, AALS or the American Association of Law Libraries,

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such as technical services, legal reference and cataloging.
Nor are the positions at law firms or corporate law
libraries included in the history of ABA, AALS or AALL
guidelines for law librarians. There has been no study,
particularly a content analysis, that generalizes and
summarizes the professional requirements of law librarians,
no matter what type of institution, for the purpose of
defining the generally accepted minimum standards that are
required of a newly hired law librarian. This study should
benefit prospective law librarians, library school educators
and current law librarians.

17

III. METHODOLOGY

To determine the recent trend in the qualifications
necessary to obtain a position as law librarian or any
professional position within a law library, this study
utilizes a classification content analysis applied to 202
job advertisements located in the American Association of
Law Libraries Newsletter between April 1992 and September
1993. The AALL Newsletter is the best source of classified
ads for law related library positions because the newsletter
is devoted to law librarianship and it is sent to all AALL
members without a subscription cost.

The AALL Newsletter is published ten times a year (in
all months except January and August) and contains job
listings in each issue. The job list appears in a section
called "Career Hotline/ Job Database Service." In 1989 the
AALL Executive Board made a rule that if the placement
listing contained a salary offer below $20,000 annually the
listing would not be published. The only other requirement
is that the listing employer has adopted and pursues
policies to not discriminate against the protected classes
in the employment of librarians and staff.

For this study all issues between April 1992 and
September 1993 were collected and duplicate job ads were
removed. The content of each ad was scanned and the

13

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relevant information was transferred onto coding sheets (see
Appendix A) so that each sheet contained the information
from one advertisement. The categories used on the coding
sheet were derived from prior content analysis studies of
other areas of librarianship, as well as from a preliminary
scanning of the ads before beginning the coding process .
Once the 202 coding sheets were completed the information
contained in them was grouped/ tabulated and analyzed.

19

IV. RESULTS

Table 1 shows a breakdown of the types of job titles
that appeared in the 202 ads, the number of times they
appeared, and their percentage of the total number of ads.

TABLE 1

NUMBER AND TYPES OF POSITIONS ADVERTISED
GROUPED BY JOB TITLE

TYPES OF POSITIONS ADVERTISED

f

%

REFERENCE LIBRARIAN

43

21.3%

LAW LIBRARIAN

31

15.3%

DIRECTOR

14

6.9%

ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN

13

6.4%

CATALOG LIBRARIAN

11

5.4%

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

7

3.5%

PUBLIC SERVICES LIBRARIAN

7

3.5%

TECHNICAL SERVICES LIBRARIAN

7

3.5%

HEAD OF TECHNICAL SERVICES

5

2.5%

COMPUTER SERVICES LIBRARIAN

5

2.5%

ACQUISITIONS LIBRARIAN/COLLECTION DEV

5

2.5%

ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN OF TECHNICAL SERVICES

4

1.9%

HEAD OF REFERENCE

4

1.9%

BRANCH SERVICES LIBRARIAN

3

1.5%

SERIALS/GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS

3

1.5%

REFERENCE & COMPUTER SERVICES

3

1.5%

HEAD OF PUBLIC SERVICES

2

1.0%

PATENT SEARCHER

2

1.0%

ASSISTANT REFERENCE LIBRARIAN

2

1.0%

INFORMATION DELIVERY SERVICES LIBRARIAN

2

1.0%

ASSOCIATE RESEARCH LIBRARIAN

2

1.0%

FOREIGN, COMPARATIVE & INTERNATIONAL LAW

2

1.0%

REFERENCE/COLLECTION DEV FOR FOREIGN LAW

2

1.0%

REFERENCE & CATALOGING LIBRARIAN

2

1.0%

ALL OTHER JOB TITLES USED

21

10.4%

TOTAL NUMBER OF JOB TITLES (NUMBER OF ADS)

202

100.0%

15

20

16

The division into the eight categories located in Table
2 was aided by prior content analysis studies (Reser &
Schuneman, 51) . The most prevalent job type was the
reference related job titles which accounted for 32% of the
ads. The second largest category of titles, law librarian
or assistant law librarian, made up 22% of the total number
of ads.

TABLE 2

NUMBER AND TYPES OF POSITIONS ADVERTISED
GROUPED BY BROAD CATEGORIES

JOB CATEGORY

f

%

LAW LIBRARIAN OR ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN

44

21

.8%

REFERENCE RELATED LIBRARY POSITION

64

31

.7%

CATALOGING

13

6

.4%

DIRECTOR/ ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

22

10

.9%

PUBLIC SERVICES

12

5

.9%

TECHNICAL SERVICES/COMPUTER SERVICES

26

12

.9%

ACQUISITIONS

6

3

.0%

ALL OTHER JOB TITLES

15

7

.4%

TOTAL

202

100

.0%

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Table 3 indicates the types of employers that
advertised in the study period. By far the largest type of
employer was the universities or law schools with 63% of the
ads. The second highest number of ads, 21%, came from law
firms. This indicates to future law librarians that
universities and law schools are probably the most
predominant employers of law librarians, with law firms
being the second largest attractors. The breakdown by type
of employer is carried through into the other categorical
tables .

TABLE 3

DISTRIBUTION OF JOB ADS BY TYPE OF EMPLOYER

TYPES OF EMPLOYERS ' f %

UNIVERSITY OR LAW SCHOOL LIBRARIES 128 63.3%

LAW FIRMS 4 3 21. 2*

COUNTY, STATE & CITY LAW LIBRARIES 10 5.0*
COURT AFFILIATED LIBRARIES

(APP, SUP OR FED) 10 5.0%

MISCELLANEOUS LAW LIBRARIES 5 2.5%
(MEMORIAL LIBRARY, ABSTRACT SERVICE,
LAW BOOK CO., CORPORATION &
RESEARCH CENTER)

LEGAL ASSOCIATIONS (AALL & BAR ASSOC.) 3 1.5%

EMPLOYER NOT DESCRIBED IN THE AD 3 1.5%

TOTAL NUMBER OF ADS

202 100.0%

18

The geographic location of each ad was coded on the
state level, and then grouped (see Table 4 below) into the
five regions used in the list of ALA Accredited Library
Schools (Bowker 1993, 381) .

LOCATION

TABLE 4

REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF ADVERTISEMENTS
BY TYPE OF EMPLOYER

OTHER

UNIV. /LAW
SCHOOL

f %

NORTHEAST 40

SOUTHEAST 24

MIDWEST 33

SOUTHWEST 8

WEST 23

TOTALS 128"

11.9%

LAW FIRM

%

19.8% 12 5.9%

3.0%

4.0% 0 0.0%

11.4% 14 6.9%

TOTAL

3.5% 59 29.2%

1.0% 32 15.9%

16.3% 11 5.4% 8 4.0% 52 25.7%

1.9% 12 5.9%

10 5.0% 47 23.3%

63.4% 43 21.2% 31 15.4% 202 100.0%

23

19

Table 5 shows the treatment of advanced degrees within
all 202 job ads. The important wording in the ads centers
around reference to "REQUIRED" or "PREFERRED" degrees.
Slightly more than half the ads required just the MLS. The
second largest group of employers required both a JD and an
MLS. In comparison, only 3% of all the employers re quired
just a JD.

TABLE 5

DEGREES REQUIRED AND PREFERRED
ALL EMPLOYER TYPES

ADVANCED DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

REQUIRE JUST MLS

REQUIRE JUST JD

102 50.5%
6 3.0%

REQUIRE BOTH JD & MLS

50 24.7%

REQUIRE BOTH JD MLS OR RELEVANT
EXPERIENCE TO REPLACE ONE DEGREE

REQUIRE EITHER MLS OR JD

JUST PREFER MLS

NO ADVANCED DEGREE MENTIONED

17
11
10

6

3.4%
5.4%
5.0%
3.0%

TOTAL ADS

202 100.0%

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Table 6, located on page 21, tabulates the advanced
degree requirements and preferences by the type of employer.
The table indicates that universities and law schools
generally require, at the very least, an MLS with a
preference or requirement of the JD as well • On the other
hand, none of the law firms or other law library employers
in this study indicated a requirement of both degrees, and
in fact the MLS is the more preferred of the two advanced
degrees .

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9

ERIC

22

Table 7 indicates the frequency with which employers
specifically advertised for a person with law library
experience. This is an important credential considering
the fact that most library schools and law schools do not
prepare the future law librarian for actual practice
within a law Library environment. The figures show that
nearly 43% of employers specifically require law library
experience, and almost 20% merely prefer that the
candidate possess experience within a law library.

TABLE 7

LAW LIBPARY EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS OR PREFERENCES
BY TYPE OF EMPLOYER

EXPERIENCE INDICATED UNIV. /LAW LAW FIRM OTHER TOTAL
IN AD SCHOOL

f % f % f % f %

REQUIRE LAW LIBRARY

EXPERIENCE 55 27.2% 20 10.0% 11 5.4% 86 42.6%

PREFER LAW LIBRARY

EXPERIENCE 28 13.9% 4 1.9% 8 4.0% 40 19.8*

NO MENTION OF

LAW LIBRARY EXPER. 45 22.3% 19 9.4% 12 5.9% 76 37.6b

128 63.4% 43 21.3% 31 15.3% 202 100%

28

23

The use of law-related online telecommunication
systems, often referred to as computer assisted legal
research or CALR, is common in the law library environment
and table 8 indicates the number of employers who require
experience with usir*y these systems • The most frequently
mentioned system is the LEXIS online system which was
required by 18.8% of the advertising employers.

TABLE 8

COMPUTER EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
BY TYPE OF EMPLOYER

COMPUTER EXPERIENCE

UN IV

. / LAW

LAW

FIRM

OTHER

TOTAL

-TELECOMMUNICATIONS

SCHOOL

f

%

f

%

f

%

f

%

WESTLAW

25

12.4%

8

4.0%

2

1.0%

35

17.4%

LEXIS

25

12.4%

9

4.5%

4

1.9%

38

18.8%

DIALOG

17

8.4%

7

3.5%

1

0.5%

25

12.4%

INTERNET

5

2.5%

0

0.0%

0

0.0%

5

2.5%

ALTERNATE WORDING

(CALR, OR ONLINE

LEGAL RESEARCH

SYSTEMS OR DATABASES)

16

7.9%

12

6.0%

7

3.5%

35

17.4%

ERIC

29

24

Table 9 summarizes the aspect of salary within the ads.
Less than 30% of the employers included a dollar amount. In
a majority of those offers, the base or sole amount fell
into the range of over $20,000 and under $40, 000. Most
employers chose to describe their salary offer rather than
commit to a particular dollar value. One fourth of the
employers made no mention of salary in their ads.

TABLE 9

SALARY OFFERS OR DESCRIPTIONS
ALL EMPLOYER TYPES

DESCRIPTION OF SALARY

f

%

$20, 000-29, 000

27

13.4%

$30, 000-39, 000

22

10.9%

$40, 000-49, 000

5

2.5%

$50, 000-59, 000

5

2.5%

$60, 000 and over

1

0.5%

Negotiable

7

3.5%

Commensurate w/ experience

38

18.8%

Competitive

34

16.8%

Commensurate & Competitive

9

4.4%

Excellent

2

1.0%

No mention of salary

52

25.7%

202

100.0%

Note: Dollar values are minimum

or sole

offers.

ERIC

30

V. CONCLUSION

This content analysis uncovered sortie interesting
requirements set by law library employers, and indicated
where the greatest opportunities are for those wishing to
join the profession. A candidate for a law library position
should be aware that there is a high demand for
knowledgeable legal reference librarians. The potential law
librarian should also anticipate the need for both legal and
library training to prepare for the specialized tasks
inherent in the profession . A vast majority of employers
will expect at least an MLS, and most university or law
school employers will require, or strongly prefer, that the
candidate for law librarian, or other law library
professional, have both an MLS and a JD. This bit of
information is important since over half of the jobs that
are advertised in the law library trade newsletter, AALL
Newsletter , are employers of university or law school law
libraries. In addition, law library experience is highly
recommended for the candidate wishing to successfully
impress the law library employer. Experience with computer
assisted legal research is not mandatory, but candidates who
possess those skills have an improved chance of obtaining a
professional law library position. And, although salary is
often omitted from job ads, the high demand for skilled

25

ERLC

3!

26

and/or well educated law librarians within the law firm, law
school, or university law library will tend to push the
salary range higher since the demand exceeds the supply of
qualified candidates that are graduating from library
programs .

ERIC

32

APPENDIX A

CODING SHEET

Job Title:
Degrees Required:
Degrees Preferred:
Work Experience:
Salary Offer:
Location of Job:
Computer Experience:

Westlaw

Lexis

Dialog

Internet

27

33

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